Additional Procedures Specific to Citizenship Hearings

Managers would first need to contact their counterparts at the other office for discussing the judge’s availability. The manager receiving the request would need to do their utmost for accommodating the request. This is particularly so if the request is for providing service in the applicant’s official language. However, in case the request stems from an attempt to reduce the hearing inventory, the manager would need to consider the impact to their office’s output first.

The manager receiving the request would need to confirm the availability of their judge for performing hearings by videoconference. Once confirmed, the managers would need to agree upon the number of hearings and hearing dates. Similarly, the officers would need to keep the Office of the Senior Judge informed of the arrangements. They would do this via regular reporting of videoconference hearings that took place. Offices would also need to note instances of videoconference hearings planned on the monthly schedules they send to the Senior Judge’s Office.

In general, the office whose applicants come in for interviews remains responsible for:

Ensuring that the office obtains consent for the videoconference hearing